I believe that you can teach yourself to like things less sweet. Once your palate has become used to a norm, you have to slowly reset it. For example, I drink a cup of hot tea every morning when I wake up. I used to sweeten it with two packets of high-intensity sweetener. Then one day while doing research for this book, I realized that I was drinking the sweetness equivalent of four teaspoons of sugar each morning and decided to cut back. When I first tried to go lighter on sweetness, I felt I was missing something. Each morning I dreaded making my one-packet tea, which no longer gave me the same sensory stimulation I was used to. So I decided to try a different tack. I switched from sweetener to honey, which adds not just the sweet taste, but also a lovely floral aroma. I was tricking myself by replacing some of the sweet taste with another sense: smell. Honey also boosts the mouthfeel of tea by adding more Brix solids than I was getting from my sweetener. By doing this, I replaced a bit more of the sweet taste with another sense: touch. Today I’m drinking a much different cup of tea: less sweet but equally satisfying.

Retraining your palate to like things less sweet is one of the secrets to eating a more healthful diet. It will be startling at first, but once you figure out how to swap one type of sensory stimulation (the sweet taste) for another (smell and texture) and appreciate it for its own sensation, you won’t miss anything at all.